I need advice re: recovering a couch.

[Ghee]

A former boss gave us a couch years ago. It's good furniture, not junky stuff like I find now, and it has a hide a bed which could prove useful in the future. I'm not a big hide a bed person, but it would be there for backup. Anyway, it looks awful. It's from the 80s and it's peach and country blue plaid, which I like , but it doesn't match the rest of my house at all. Also, it is very worn, bare on the arm rests. I'm trying to decide - cheap at the yards sale or recover? We couldn't get, maybe even find, nice heavy weight furniture like it again.OTOH, I have a couch that we use with our living room set and I don't know how expensive it is to recover a couch.

[Brilliant]

I would check around to see how much it would cost to get it recovered.

 

We had two easy chairs recovered a few years ago. I bought the fabric on sale (I think I ordered it online). And there was a reasonably-price placed nearby who did a good job. I don't remember how much we paid, but it was definitely cheaper than getting new chairs.

 

Now I need a sofa recovered. I can't find a good, inexpensive place to do it down here in Southern California. :( It will cost me at least $1500 including the fabric. It's a nice sofa which would cost close to $2000 to replace. So I'm in a quandary. It's so ratty looking (the fabric was too lightweight for our needs) that my dh has threatened to haul it out to the curb one day.

[Candid]

Check with your local community college and find out if they have reupholstery class that you could take and redo the couch as your project. I had a friend do that here. Don't know how common such classes are though.

[Ghee]

No local community college :( No anything. In fact the ONE person who recovered here may actually be dead (I'd be shocked if he isn't, he was old when I was a child.) I'd have to take it on our move as is and hope that, with a bigger metro area and more people, would come some people who can recover furniture.

[SweetPea]

Friend of mine gave me a well build hide-a-bed several years ago. Sat great, but boy was it ugly.

 

Do you sew at all?

 

 

I picked out fabric from JoAnn's (the section where the samples are all on hangers an they order for you) and using my 50% coupon got it for $100.

 

I practiced a pattern for the cushions using muslin. Anyway, I fitted each cushion and used zippers (you could slip stitch shut also). I fitted the arms and sides - slipped on and then stapled around the bottom. I fitted the back and stapled across the top and bottom. It ended up looking great. Get compliments all the time :D First sewing project I'd ever done and I was 5 months pregnant.

 

Good luck!

[OrganicAnn]

I think there are places that will make custom made slip covers - which while expensive would be cheaper than recovering.

 

If you can sew, even better.

[justLisa]

I once looked into recovering my couch. I planned to attempt it myself. Well not after looking at the cost of fabric. It's expensive!

 

But I suppose it would be a shame if the couch is nice and solid otherwise. My couch wasn't a quality piece so it was cheaper for me to replace it.

 

Ya, fabric that will wear well and wash after spill is just crazy. I have good sewing skills, but have only recovered one chair. It is just SO much time and work. If you have never done something lilke this, you should definitely make a muslin first, which is a further pain.

 

You could think about a slipcover.